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US 10,372,114 B2Granted
Quantifying and reducing total measurement uncertainty
AssigneeKLA-Tencor Corporation
InventorsKaren Biagini, Bryant Stanford Mantiply, Ravichander Jayantha Rao, Gary Taan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process control technique uses production data from multiple manufacturing tools and multiple inspection or metrology tools. Total measurement uncertainty (TMU) can be calculated on the production data, which can include measurements of one or more devices manufactured using the manufacturing tools. Manufacturing steps can be ranked or otherwise compared by TMU. All production modes and recipes can be continually monitored using production data.
Claims17
A system comprising:
- an interface in electronic communication with a plurality of manufacturing tools and a plurality of inspection or metrology tools;
- and
- a process control unit in electronic communication with the interface, wherein the process control unit is configured to:
- receive production data from the plurality of manufacturing tools and the plurality of inspection or metrology tools, wherein the production data includes measurements of one or more devices manufactured using the manufacturing tools;
- perform variance components analysis on the production data, wherein the variance components analysis is configured to estimate tool-to-tool standard deviation and total standard deviation;
- calculate total measurement uncertainty (TMU) on the production data;
- compare manufacturing steps by TMU;
- calculate TMU control limit impact (CLI) on the production data, wherein TMU CLI measures measurement uncertainty on control limit width based on total process standard deviation and measurement standard deviation;
- compare manufacturing steps by TMU CLI;
- determine a setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools based on the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU and the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI;
- and
- send instructions to adjust the setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools based on the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU and the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI;
- and
- wherein the process control unit comprises an electronic data storage unit configured to store a list of the manufacturing steps by TMU.
11 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a processor, production data from a plurality of manufacturing tools and a plurality of inspection or metrology tools, wherein the production data includes measurements of one or more devices manufactured using the manufacturing tools;
- performing, using the processor, variance components analysis on the production data, wherein the variance components analysis estimates tool-to-tool standard deviation and total standard deviation;
- calculating, using the processor, total measurement uncertainty (TMU) on the production data;
- comparing manufacturing steps by TMU using the processor;
- calculating, using the processor, TMU control limit impact (CLI) on the production data, wherein TMU CLI measures measurement uncertainty on control limit width based on total process standard deviation and measurement standard deviation;
- comparing manufacturing steps by TMU CLI using the processor;
- determining, using the processor, a setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools based on the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU and the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI;
- and
- sending instructions to adjust the setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools using the processor based on comparing the manufacturing steps by TMU and based on comparing the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI.
6 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising one or more programs for executing the following steps on one or more computing devices:
- performing variance components analysis on production data from a plurality of manufacturing tools and a plurality of inspection or metrology tools, wherein the production data includes measurements of one or more devices manufactured using the manufacturing tools, and wherein the variance components analysis estimates tool-to-tool standard deviation and total standard deviation;
- calculating total measurement uncertainty (TMU) on the production data;
- comparing manufacturing steps by TMU;
- calculating TMU control limit impact (CLI) on the production data, wherein TMU CLI measures measurement uncertainty on control limit width based on total process standard deviation and measurement standard deviation;
- comparing manufacturing steps by TMU CU;
- determining a setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools based on the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU and the comparison of the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI;
- and
- sending instructions to adjust the setting on at least one of the manufacturing tools or at least one of the inspection or metrology tools based on comparing the manufacturing steps by TMU and based on comparing the manufacturing steps by TMU CLI.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.